Author archive: April

I’ve been really busy lately with everyday life. I’ve had some cramping days, but for the most part I’ve been busy with non-ALS things. I do have an appointment at Emory next Friday. Other than that, as long as ALS stays calm I’ll just have the normal struggles of leaving for house showings and taking…

This week has gone by fast. I’m thankful because it has not been a nice one. I had some website issues that have been finally taken care of. On top of that I’ve had lots of muscle cramping going on and my left knee and ankle hurt from scooting myself around in my transfer chair with that leg. I need to…

I can’t wait to be able to go places in my power wheelchair. I do have one big fear: The Restroom. Right now if I find a place with a restroom that has a large enough stall to drive my chair in I’ll be fine alone. I have enough left arm and left leg strength to transfer by…

While I’m putting so much out there about myself, I thought I would share something else that has been in my way. I have ADD. I attract acronyms apparently. Although ADD will never kill me, like ALS will, it sure did hold me back from achieving many things. I never repeated a grade but school was always hard…

I keep myself busy. I think it’s good for my emotional well being and overall quality of life to be active, to feel I have a purpose. It’s very important to me that my family is left with something meaningful. A piece of jewelry, or a memorable household item is nice but I also want them…

I have a wonderful loyal friend that I spend almost every minute of my life with. It’s my little 7 lb toy poodle, Abby. Last year when I knew I would be spending so much time at home, Tony and I decided to get a dog when we sold the house and moved. We already…

While in the process of working on several projects, primarily for my family to have after my death, I’ll catch myself thinking of being there when they see certain things. I won’t be there, I’ll be dead. It’s only a brief thought before I realize it, sometimes it makes me gasp. It’s the same feeling of momentarily thinking…

What I miss before ALS: I miss my independence. I miss having the ability to jump in the car and go. I could just go visit someone, get something to eat, hit up the mall. Even if I didn’t want to go anywhere, which wasn’t uncommon, the fact remained that I could. It was an option…

I’ve had it rough the past few days. In my last blog post I mentioned not resting before clinic day. I’ve been paying the price for that. To make it worse, Friday was the longest and most intense clinic day I’ve had so far. The great news is my breathing is holding up well. I don’t…

Hello to all… Today has been a busy day for me. This morning I planned to write about preparing for ALS clinic day visits. I’m not going to have time because I’m still getting everything prepared for clinic day now. Something that should have been completed much earlier, but today didn’t go as planned. I’ll need to…